In Russian, the constructions with — n/ -tare strongly related to aspect. As rightly stated by Poupynin [1990: 11], the periphrastic passive with an imperfective participle bears very specific aspectual meanings («aspectual particular meaning», [ibid: 131]), due to very specific conditions of syntactic order, lexicon and context. Being unable to convey the notion of process, which is specific to the passive reflexive, an utterance such as (25a) combines two semantic values according to the author [ibid.: 11—2]: that of experience («experiential action») and that of resultant state («resultant state»).

But the use of the reflexive perfective passive such as (25b), which is infrequent and often deemed familiar, is due to «its ability to express the so-called potential contextual meaning» of the perfective which is interpreted as a quality of the subject [Poupynin 1990: 11–12' 1996: 131]:

The meaning of passive process, i. e. one which occurs simultaneously with the speech act, may be conveyed by the reflexive passive. However, this meaning always appears in a marked context and usually has a generic interpretation:

While both passive constructions may be used with the same verb root, their aspectual meaning is different. Thus, in Bulgarian, for example, the construction with the perfective participle expresses a resultative state ((27a), (28a)) and stands in sharp contrast with the notion of event conveyed by the reflexive aorist passive ((27b), (28b)); whatever the lexical meaning of the verb, the aorist does not imply a resultative state.

Those oppositions must be kept, as illustrated by such verbs as svarja «cook, boil». (29a) is more appropriately analysed as a construction in which the resultative participle functions as a predicate; (29b) in turn shows that the reflexive aorist denotes a completed process, i. e. an event:

In Serbo-Croatian, the aspectual difference is not very strong. Yet, (30a), unlike (30b), does not express a resultative state, but refers to an interrupted process bounded by the adverbial time limit «two months»:

In the following example, the aspectual constraints are context sensitive; the context does not allow the use of the periphrastic passive, only the reflexive passive:

In (31) the perfective aorist denotes an event. The three reflexive imperfects occur within the boundaries of this event: the first two točexa seand varjaxa seboth express iteration (an open class of events), the third se vărgaljaxarefers to a stative situation (a descriptive state). The iterative interpretation is selected by various factors: the presence of a perfective aorist, some nominal groups without any determination marker, the semantic properties of the verbs in the imperfect form.

I leave aside the impersonal reflexive passive constructions which imply various modal shades of meaning (32a) and the impersonal constructions with — no/ -to(neuter) participle associated with an intransitive verb (32b):

I have tried to show that the differences between the periphrastic passives and the reflexive passives is mostly aspectual; the use of the periphrastic passive is more constrained than that of the reflexive passive, since its value is based on the notion of resultative state. The interpretation of the periphrastic passive, as either a resultative state or a dynamic event, depends on various factors: 1. the aspectual properties of the participle (since it is derived from a verbal lexeme, the — n/ -tparticiple inherits the aspectual characteristics of the lexical type of the verb); 2. the temporal paramétré borne by the auxiliary; 3. the construction of the predicate; 4. the adverbial phrases licensed in the construction; 5. the discourse context of the utterance, by which the speaker may chose to highlight one of the possible representations of a referential situation.

Barakova P. Semantika i distribucija na pasivnite konstrukcii v săvremennija bălgarski knižoven ezik // Izvestija na Instituta za bălgarski ezik. 1980. № 24.

Comrie B. Aspect, an introduction to the study of verbal aspect and related problems. London; N. Y., 1976.

Comrie B. Aspect and voice: some reflections on perfect and passive// Ph. J. Tadeschi, A. Zaenen (eds). Tense and Aspect N. Y. etc., 1981. (Syntax & Semantics, 14).

Desclés J.-P. & Guentchéva Z. Le passif dans le système des voix du français // Gross G. (éd.). Sur le passif. Langages 109. Paris, 1993.

Khrakovskij VS. — Храковский В. С. Пассивные конструкции // Теория функциональной грамматики: Персональность. Залоговость. СПб., 1991.